A Kuwaiti medical team from the Chest Hospital has revealed global results in the treatment of the Aortic valve by catheterization (TAVI), which is the installation of valve through the catheter without the need for surgical intervention.

Dr. Ibrahim Al­Rashdan, a member of the team, consultant on heart diseases and catheterization, told KUNA on Wednesday that thanks to accumulated experience, the Kuwaiti medical team at the Chest Hospital achieved great international results through conducting such operations.

Al­Rashdan added that the Chest Hospital received the first license to conduct the catheterization procedure about 10 years ago as the first center in the Middle East. He explained that the medical team conducts the TAVI operations now on a regular basis one day a week at the rate of 200 operations per year, indicating that this number of operations puts the Chest Hospital in the first place in the region. He pointed out that the narrowness of the Aortic valve is one of the most common heart disease, especially in the elderly who suffer from the disease which has several symptoms such as shortness of breath, chest pain and loss of consciousness.

He said that the Kuwaiti medical team has conducted these operations very professionally without the need to use expertise from outside Kuwait or send patients abroad. He pointed out that these operations were conducted previously through surgical intervention in the open heart operation to replace the Aortic valve with an artificial valve, noting that the process takes four hours and the patient needs to stay in the hospital for a period of not less than a week and need for a rest period of more than a month, whereas the TAVI operation only takes less than half an hour.

For his part, consultant of cardiac catheterization and head of the catheterization unit at the Chest Hospital Dr. Khalid Al­Marri said in a similar statement to (KUNA) that the medical team conducts four TAVI operations weekly and this is one of the highest in the region.

Al­Marri pointed out that the process is done by inserting the artificial valve into the patient's body through the artery located in the thigh after giving anesthesia to the area to avoid pain to the patient until it reaches the narrow Aortic valve and install it.

Al­Marri said that all patients are followed periodically under a rigorous research protocol to ensure success of the results of the catheter and compare them with the global results, indicating that long­term results match the results of the world centers if not surpasse them.

"The new treatment has greatly contributed to the treatment of many of the previously difficult conditions, since the patients are not fit to carry open heart surgery," said team member Dr. Khalid Bursali, and head of the ultrasound unit.

He added that the results and figures of the treatment of aortic valve through the catheter (TAVI) in the Chest Hospital have become comparable to the results of global centers, indicating that the work of the Kuwaiti medical team is not limited to this procedure, but includes training and education of doctors inside and outside Kuwait.